Abstract

Leaf-cutter ant nests attract a wide variety of guests and parasites due to considerable food resources, substrate and shelter available within nests. Limited information is known about their taxonomy, bionomics, and natural history, including interactions with the ants, and degree of host specificity of these symbionts. Here we describe two new species of Szelenyiopria Fabritius, 1974 (Diapriidae, Diapriinae, Diapriini) wasps which are koinobiont endoparasitoids of the larvae of a leaf-cutter ant, Acromyrmex coronatus (Fabricius, 1804) (Myrmicinae, Attini) in Chiriquí, Panama. For both new Szelenyiopria species, S. fortunensis Araúz & Fernández-Marín, sp. nov. and S. chiriquiensis Araúz & Fernández-Marín, sp. nov., we provide information on parasite–host interactions. The most abundant and frequent parasitoid type was solitary, while gregarious parasitoidism, where two or more wasps emerged from a single ant larva, was associated with certain times of the year. We provide an updated key to females of all species of Szelenyiopria, their geographic distribution, and host–parasite interactions. Szelenyiopria previously had been identified as parasitoids of several ant genera including some Acromyrmex species, but our data indicate that some species of Szelenyiopria may be specialized on A. coronatus ants. Rates of parasitism suggest that the wasps have a negative effect on colonies and populations of the ants.

Addeddate

2025-09-03 20:34:20

Bhl_virtual_titleid

210914

Bhl_virtual_volume

v.1250 (2025)

Call number

10_3897_zookeys_1250_151740

Call-number

10_3897_zookeys_1250_151740

Foldoutcount

0

Genre

article

Identifier

twonewspeciessz1250arau

Identifier-ark

ark:/13960/s209srdpdm6

Identifier-bib

10_3897_zookeys_1250_151740

Identifier-doi

10.3897/zookeys.1250.151740

Ocr

tesseract 5.3.0-6-g76ae

Ocr_detected_lang

en

Ocr_detected_lang_conf

1.0000

Ocr_detected_script

Latin

Ocr_detected_script_conf

1.0000

Ocr_module_version

0.0.21

Ocr_parameters

-l eng

Page_number_confidence

0

Page_number_module_version

1.0.5

Page_range

293-314

Pages

22

Pdf_degraded

invalid-jp2-headers

Pdf_module_version

0.0.25

Possible copyright status

In copyright. Digitized with the permission of the rights holder.

Ppi

300

Source

ZooKeys 1250

Year

2025

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